Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Book Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2011/04/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-by.html

Bart Ehrman - The History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon: Review

This is exactly the same situation as my previously posted video reviews of Introduction to the New Testament by Dale Martin and Introduction to the Old Testament by Christine Hayes.  Meaning, as with the other two lecture series, this is something I linked to off of my blog once before (and have subsequently made reference to) but never got around to reviewing.  
Since I've started doing my so-called "Scripted Reviews" project, and have been going through all my old reviews and making Youtube videos, I've decided to include the various audio lecture series I've recommended on this blog, but never reviewed.  

I re-listened to this lecture series before filming the video, but I didn't script the video ahead of time, and the result is my usual unstructured rambling.
Also another consequence of not scripting is a lot of minor mistakes slipping in.  For example, at one point I said Bart Ehrman taught at "South Chapel Hill" instead of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  I regret that error.

And if you still haven't gotten around to it, you can listen to the lecture series here:

https://archive.org/details/BartEhrman-TheHistoryOfTheBibleTheMakingOfTheNewTestamentCanon/BartD.Ehrman-TheHistoryOfTheBible-12-12.mp3

Using Tom and Jerry Cartoons to Teach Passives

(TESOL Worksheets--Passive)
Youtube Video HERE
Slideshow: slides, pub
Worksheet: docs, pub

[Notes: These materials use the Present Simple Passive, the Past Simple Passive, the Present Continuous Passive, and the Present Perfect Passive.  The choice of passives here reflect the textbook I was teaching out of, but the material can easily be adapted to include other passive tenses. 
This isn't the first time I've used Tom and Jerry to teach passives.  See also: Tom and Jerry Active and Passive Present Tense.]

The dog is seen by Tom.

Tom’s leg is caught by the dog.

Tom’s leg is being licked by the dog.

Tom’s leg was bitten by the dog.

The dog has been woken up by Tom

Tom’s face was hit by the bird.

Tom is being dusted by the bird.

Tom’s legs are being pushed apart by the bird.

The bird was caught by Tom.

The bird is being hit by Tom.

The string is being tied by Jerry.

The string has been tied by Jerry.

The pole is being cut by Jerry.

The pole has been cut by Jerry.

The pole is being pushed by Jerry.

The pole has been pushed by Jerry.

Tom is being pulled by the string.

Tom has been pulled by the string.

The pot is being put on the stove by Jerry.

The water is being put into the pot by the bird.

The string is being untied by the bird.

Finished (Watching): Wandavision--Okay, so my backlog on reviews is starting to pile up now.  (I've got pending Don Quixote, Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction, and Sign of the Unicorn).    But I'm going to try to knock this one out in the next day or two.

Video review HERE

As long as I'm breaking my own rules by posting about random stuff, here is a link from cracked.com:
4 Ways 'Death Of Superman' (Accidentally) Changed Pop Culture

In particular, I found myself identifying with point number 1:
It Created A Whole New Generation Of Obsessive Readers

To quote from the article:

The story starts with Superman fighting a bunch of sewer mutants created by a secret genetic experimentation facility who had teamed up with some alien warriors that got stranded on Earth during a recent invasion and now planned to take over Metropolis. None of this has anything to do with Superman's death. In fact, everything in this comic seems specifically designed to stump anyone who only knows Superman from TV or the movies. Why is Lex Luthor a red-haired young Fabio with an Australian accent? Why does Supergirl turn into putty upon being punched?

...yep, yep, yep, that describes me perfectly.  I remember being confused by all of these things when I first picked up this comic collection.
The article continues:

To a lot of readers, these and more details are just frustrating -- but to hundreds of thousands of others, they were endlessly fascinating. 

Yes, again, that was me.  The Death of Superman was my first entry into DC comics, and I was fascinated to discover how many plot threads were running around in the background.  I had no idea what was happening, mind you, but this kind of story-telling fascinated me and I wanted to know more.  The article continues:

 Unlike other famous comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, the overall "Death" saga didn't exist in a vacuum -- it was the nexus point for years of plotlines. The current Superman continuity (which had started in 1986) was secretly one big, messy story, and if you dug through the older issues, you could put the puzzle together and see how it all fit by yourself.

...well, yeah, that's what you had to do in the 1990s.  Nowadays, of course, you'd just go straight to Wikipedia to find out what is going on.  But back then, there was no Wikipedia, so you'd just have to go back to the comic book store and find the back issues.  And gradually, the more comic books you found, the more the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together.

...but of course, nowadays we have Wikipedia.  And so, from Wikipedia, I've learned that most of the Superman plotlines that fascinated me in the 1990s were actually leftover from the Jack Kirby's run on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in the 1970s.   (The back issues in my local comic book store seldom went back as far as the 1970s, so this is something that I would have never known if it weren't for Wikipedia.)

...but I know it now.  In fact, a few years ago, I wrote a whole blog post on it. 
Interesting Random Facts--How Jack Kirby Characters from the 1970s Figured in the Superman Comic books of the Early 1990s

Chinatown: Movie Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2011/04/chinatown.html

So, I broke my own rule again, and tweeted about politics.  
I couldn't help myself.  This fake Dr. Seuss controversy is just so emblematic of how broken our political discourse is.  (Blame the media, blame social media, blame the grifters who make their living preaching about the cultural war.)

I was set off by a bunch of dumb articles I've been seeing all day, but specifically this one: 
CPAC blasts cancel culture – could the attacks on Dr. Seuss be the tipping point?
...which contained this line:

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/cpac-cancel-culture-attacks-dr-seuss-liz-peek

...which prompted me too tweet:

"Vote for me and..." 

...and what?  I promise that no publisher will ever be able to cease publication of any book ever, even if it becomes unprofitable for them?
Don't get me wrong.  I'm not happy that these books aren't being published anymore.  I love everything Dr Seuss, even his lesser known books.  But you can't possibly make a political issue out of this, can you?  It's not the Democrats' fault.
The real problem is that corporations are in charge of our cultural heritage.  The corporations own the rights to these books, and if they want to withdraw them from circulation, there's nothing you can do about it.  But it's not a left vs. right issue.
How about passing this law:  If a corporation decides to stop publishing a book (or movie, or whatever), they automatically lose the rights to it and it becomes public domain.  Then anyone who wants to can publish it.  There, I just solved the cancel culture problem.
The attempt by conservatives to channel this outrage into electoral victories is really dishonest.  What specific legislative reforms are you proposing that will prevent a corporation from ceasing the publication of a certain book?

"Vote for me and..."
...and what? I promise that no publisher will ever be able to cease publication of any book ever, even if it becomes unprofitable for them?https://t.co/sv9LioK4KF pic.twitter.com/wun3EXJkdX

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) March 4, 2021

Don't get me wrong. I'm not happy that these books aren't being published anymore. I love everything Dr Seuss, even his lesser known books. But you can't possibly make a political issue out of this, can you? It's not the Democrats fault.

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) March 4, 2021

The real problem is that corporations are in charge of our cultural heritage. The corporations own the rights to these books, and if they want to withdraw them from circulation, there's nothing you can do about it. But it's not a left vs. right issue.

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) March 4, 2021

How about passing this law: If a corporation decides to stop publishing a book (or movie, or whatever), they automatically lose the rights to it and it becomes public domain. Then anyone who wants to can publish it. There, I just solved the cancel culture problem.

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) March 4, 2021

The attempt by conservatives to channel this outrage into electoral victories is really dishonest. What specific legislative reforms are you proposing that will prevent a corporation from ceasing the publication of a certain book?

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) March 4, 2021

Actually a brief addendum to these tweets:
Taking a closer look at the article I linked to, she's actually not talking about the publisher's decision to stop publishing those 6 books specifically, but Loudoun County Schools.  So my point perhaps doesn't apply very well to this article, but I think it still applies to a lot of the conservative talking points that have been circulating in the last 24 hours--i.e. a lot of other conservatives have been complaining about the publisher's decision.

Second Addendum (March 5, 2021):
As long as I'm talking about so-called cancel culture, I should link to Whisky's post on the Gina Carano controversy: Retreating from the sands of Iwo Jima
As Whisky implies in his post, this may be less about "The Left" and more just about how The Mouse does business:

Carano on the other hand is a fighter first, and an actor ... well, being an actor is somewhat further down her list of priorities. Indications point to her spoiling for a fight with the Mouse. And the Mouse don’t fight — the Mouse makes situations disappear.

Yours truly chimed in in the comments to point out that this is nothing new--The Mouse has always moved quick to get rid of any actors actors who could potentially be controversial.  See the biographies of former Disney golden boys Tommy Kirk or Bobby Driscoll.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Movie Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2011/04/voyage-of-dawn-treader.html

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Movie Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2011/04/fantastic-mr-fox.html

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell: Book Review (Scripted)

Video version of an old post (as I explained about HERE)
For the original post, see:
http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2011/04/homage-to-catalonia-by-george-orwell.html

Sorry about the abrupt ending.  My camera automatically shuts off after 30 minutes, so if I ramble too long, I get cut off in mid-sentence.
I was almost done though.  The only thing I wanted to add was:
"A fascinating little book. At only 232 pages, it's well worth the short time it will take you to read it."

For the excerpt I mentioned in which Orwell describes what it's like to get shot:
http://wesclark.com/jw/catalonia.html